Three US Senators, including Democrat Amy Klobuchar, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, wrote a letter to Amazon.com expressing concern over its fingerprint recognition system, Klobuchar’s office said on Friday. .
Amazon has begun deploy biometric technology at its Whole Foods stores around Seattle in April, allowing shoppers to pay for items with a scan of their palm. The system, called Amazon one, allows customers to link a credit card to their fingerprint.
Klobuchar, who was joined by Senators Bill Cassidy, a Republican, and Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, expressed concern in the letter dated Thursday regarding both Amazon One’s privacy and competition.
“Our concerns about user privacy are reinforced by evidence that Amazon shared voice data with third party contractors and allegations that Amazon violated biometric privacy laws,” lawmakers wrote in the letter. .
“We are also concerned that Amazon may use data from Amazon One, including data from third-party customers who may purchase and use Amazon One devices, to further strengthen its competitive edge and remove competition in various markets.” , they wrote.
Lawmakers asked Amazon about Amazon One’s expansion plans and to whom they had sold or licensed the technology. They also asked how many people signed up, how the data was used and if it was already associated with facial recognition systems.
Amazon declined to comment but pointed to a blog post dated April 21, which said it was in “active discussions with several potential customers.”
He further stated that Amazon One was designed to be “highly secure”.
“The Amazon One device is protected by multiple security checks, and palm images are never stored on the Amazon One device. Rather, the images are encrypted and sent to a highly secure area that we have custom-created for Amazon One in the cloud, ”he added. blog article says.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
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